FN keys not displaying

Hi,

I've been browsing online now for my solutions but I have not been able to find it, so I have resorted to asking the wisest of people :).

I have an emachine 250 with windows xp. Works fine, but I uninstalled a few programs yesterday and now my FN keys does not display when its being activated. ie. When i would mute the laptop, i would use FN + F8 and on display it would pop a speaker with a big slash thru it for 2.5 secs. Now it longer displays it, however the keys still continue to operate. It bothers me because I cant tell if certain things are on such as wifi, audio, etc....

I thought it was drivers and looked around, but have been unsuccessful, would someone please light my path?

Thx in advance!